Baseball Commissioner Rules On Pete Rose’s Request for Reinstatement

He's been welcomed back to the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. He appeared on Fox television during the baseball playoffs. The only remaining question was whether new Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred would reinstate Pete Rose.

Manfred today, rejected Pete Rose's latest attempt for reinstatement. He made note of the fact that Rose is still, to this day, betting on baseball as well as the evidence of Rose betting on the game on a continuous basis during his playing/managing career.

September 11, 1985: I remember so well listening to a St. Louis Cardinals game on the radio that night. The Cardinal network interrupted their broadcast to go to live coverage from Cincinnati when Pete Rose came to the plate in an attempt to get his 4,192nd hit. He got it and I heard it live, via the voice of Reds play-by-play announcer Marty Brenneman. I still remember him saying, "There it is!" It was an exciting moment. I may have been a Cardinals fan, but more than that I was a baseball fan. That made me a Pete Rose fan. Rose was the epitome of baseball. His mom was there on that magical night, recapped in this video:

August 24, 1989: Less than four years after that magical night, Pete Rose was banned from the game for betting on baseball. Then Commissioner Bart Giamatti made the announcement and I immediately didn't like him... Giamatti that is. Pete couldn't have, could he? I soon realized Pete was the one that was wrong. Despite a mountain of evidence, Rose continued to deny it.

Should Rose be reinstated? I honestly don't think he deserves it. How can he be taken seriously when he continues to do the very thing that got him banned from the game? Pete just doesn't seem to get it. Apparently he never will.

[via AP and ESPN]